Apparatus and Method for Strobel high-heel shoes

ABSTRACT

A shoe and a process for fabricating high-heeled shoes or pumps incorporates Strobel technology having an upper outer material with a lower end region of the outer material located in a lower upper end region, an upper lining material, which is arranged on the inner side of the upper outer material, incorporates a functional layer and has a lower end region of the lining material, the end region of the lining material having a lining edge that is not covered by the upper outer material, and a connecting band, resulting in a comfortable high-heeled shoe that can be worn all day and reduces foot stress over conventional high-heeled shoes.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This non-provisional patent application claims a priority benefit to U.S. Provisional application No. 61/301,626 entitled “Apparatus and Method for Strobel high-heel shoes” filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Feb. 4, 2010 by a common Inventor to this instant application, Alex DelCielo. Further the above named Provisional Application in its entirety is hereby incorporated by reference.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH

Not Applicable

REFERENCE TO APPENDIX

Not Applicable

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to the construction of pumps or high-heeled shoes using Strobel technology.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

New, useful and aesthetically pleasing materials are constantly being sought out, discovered and applied to footwear. Although Strobel technology has been known for use on other foot wear such as flats, it has not been previously used in the construction of pumps or high-heeled shoes. Strobel technology has very desirable qualities for application in pumps such as comfort, reduced foot stress, reduced impact forces and shock absorption.

Thus there is a need for high-heeled shoes having Strobel technology incorporated into the construction thereof.

Such a product and or method of producing such product is heretofore unknown to the Inventor. In general this new product and method have the potential for creating unique foot wear with extremely comfortable shoes, which absorb unwanted and detrimental walking or running impacts to a consumer's joints or skeletal structure. Ambulatory health and safety are increased with a more an attractive, comfortable, and longer wearable shoe.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

High-heeled shoes are famous for their looks but also for their discomfort. A new type of construction using Strobel techniques renders a more comfortable shoe.

OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES

The primary purpose of this invention is to fabricate a unique high-heel shoe incorporating Strobel technology.

Accordingly, several objects and advantages of our invention are:

(a) to integrate Strobel technology into high-heeled shoes;

(b) to provide a higher degree of comfort than previously known in high-heeled shoes;

(c) to provide a high-heel shoe that is wearable for many hours of the day in comfort;

(d) to provide shoe with impact absorption characteristics to lessen joint stress when ambulating;

(e) to provide a new shoe sole design that is aesthetically pleasing in fashion; and

(f) to provide a foot wear product that has a significantly lower import US Tariff Schedule than conventional foot wear.

Further objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and ensuing description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1-37 are various photographs showing the method and construction techniques of a Strobel high-heeled shoe.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

While the present invention has been illustrated and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, various modifications will be apparent to and might readily be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention. Accordingly, it is not intended that the scope of the claims appended hereto be limited to the description as set forth herein, but, rather, that the claims be broadly construed.

The high-heeled shoe, or a shoe whose heel is higher than the toe, is a matter of contentious and heated discussion. Shoes in general have typically served as markers of gender, class, race, and ethnicity—and both the foot and the shoe have been imbued with powerful phallic and fertility symbols as evidenced in the contemporary practice of tying shoes to a newlywed couple's car. No other shoe, however, has gestured toward leisure, sexuality, and sophistication as much as the high-heeled shoe. Fraught with contradiction, heels paradoxically inhibit movement in order to increase it, at least in appearance. Standing in heels, a woman presents herself already half-walking while at the same time reducing the length of her step, fostering the illusion of speed while suggesting the promise of an immanent fall. The higher and more unstable the heel, the more clearly these contradictions are expressed (Kunzle 2004). Doctors and scholars alike have argued about the physical and cultural effect, both positive and negative, that heels have had not only on women, but on society as a whole.

Precursors to the High-Heeled Shoe

Most of the lower class in ancient Egypt walked barefoot, but figures on murals dating from 3500 B.C. depict an early version of shoes worn mostly by the higher classes. These were leather pieces held together with lacing that was often arranged to look like the symbol of “Ankh,” which represents life. But there are also some depictions of both upper-class males and females wearing heels, probably for ceremonial purposes. Egyptian butchers also wore heels, to help them walk above the blood of dead beasts. In ancient Greece and Rome, platform sandals called kothorni, later known as buskins in the Renaissance, were shoes with high wood or cork soles that were popular particularly among actors who would wear shoes of different heights to indicated varying social status or importance of characters. In ancient Rome, sex trade was not illegal and female prostitutes were readily identified by their high heels (Wilson 2005).

Chopines, or platform shoes, were created in Turkey in the 1400s, and were popular throughout Europe until the mid-1600s During the Middle Ages, both men and women would wear pattens, or wooden soles, that were clearly a precursor the high heel. Pattens would attach to fragile and expensive shoes to keep them out of the mud and other street “debris” when walking outdoors (Swann 1984). In the 1400s, chopines, or platform shoes, were created in Turkey and were popular throughout Europe until the mid-1600s. Chopines could be seven to eight or even 30 inches high, requiring women to use canes or servants to help them walk. Like pattens, chopines were overshoes, but unlike the pattens, chopines were worn almost exclusively by women (Rexford 2000). They were usually designed with cork or wood stacked as the heel.

The Venetians made the chopine into a status symbol revealing wealth and social standing for women, and tourists to Venice often remarked humorously on the outrageously high chopines. One visitor noted that they were “invented by husbands who hoped the cumbersome movement [that] entailed would make illicit liaisons difficult” (McDowell 1989). Already we can see issues of domination and submission being associated with shoes much like the lotus shoes of China. Indeed, Chinese concubines and Turkish odalisques wore high shoes, prompting scholars to speculate if heels were used not only for aesthetic reasons but also to prevent women from escaping the harem (Kunzle 2004).

Shoes were beginning to be made in two pieces during the 1500s, with a flexible upper attached to a heavier, stiffer sole (Swann 1984). This new two-part shoe led to the heel as an actual part of the shoe rather than just an attachable overshoe.

Raised heels are sometimes claimed to have been a response to the problem of the rider's foot slipping forward in stirrups while riding. The “rider's heel,” approximately 1½ inch (4 cm) high, appeared around 1500. The leading edge was canted forward to help grip the stirrup, and the trailing edge was canted forward to prevent the elongated heel from catching on underbrush or rock while backing up, such as in on-foot combat. These features are evident today in riding boots, notably cowboy boots.

The simple riding heel gave way to a more stylized heel over its first three decades. Beginning with the French, heel heights among men crept up, often becoming higher and thinner, until they were no longer useful while riding, but were relegated to “court-pony” wear. By the late 1600s, men's heels were commonly between three and four inches in height.

However, high heels may have been worn by women just as early or earlier, both as a fashion statement and to increase short stature. At least as early as 1533, the diminutive Italian wife of Henry II King of France, Queen Catherine de' Medici, commissioned a cobbler to fashion her a pair of heels, both for fashion, and to suggest greater height. They were an adaptation of chopines and pattens (elevated wooden soles with both heel and toe raised, not unlike modern platform shoes or dogs and sabots), intended to protect the feet of the wearer from dirt and mud; but unlike chopines, the heel was higher than the toe and the “platform” was made to bend in the middle with the foot. That raised shoes had already been worn as a fashion statement in Italy, at least, is suggested by sumptuary laws in Venice that banned the wearing of chopine-style platform shoes as early as the 1430s.

High-heeled shoes quickly caught on with the fashion-conscious men and women of the French court, and spread to pockets of nobility in other countries. The term “well-heeled” became synonymous with opulent wealth. Both men and women continued wearing heels as a matter of noble fashion throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. When the French Revolution drew near, in the late 1700s, the practice of wearing heels fell into decline in France due to its associations with wealth and aristocracy. Throughout most of the 1800s, flat shoes and sandals were usual for both sexes, but the heel resurfaced in fashion during the late 1800s, almost exclusively among women.

Throughout the last 60 years high-heels have fallen in and out of favor several times, most notably in the late 90s, when lower heels and even flats predominated. Lower heels were preferred during the late 60s and early 70s as well, but higher heels returned in the late 80s and early 90s. The shape of the fashionable heel has also changed from block (70s) to tapered (90s), and stiletto (50s, 80s, and post-2000).

Today, high-heels are typically worn by women, with heights varying from a kitten heel of 1½ inch (4 cm) to a stiletto heel (or spike heel) of 4 inch (10 cm) or more. Extremely high-heeled shoes, such as those higher than 5 inch (13 cm), are normally worn only for aesthetic reasons and are not considered practical. Court shoes are conservative styles and often used for work and formal occasions, while more adventurous styles are common for evening wear and dancing. High-heels have seen significant controversy in the medical field lately, with many podiatrists seeing patients whose severe foot problems have been caused almost exclusively by high-heel wear.

Wedge heel is informally another style of the heel, where heel is in a wedge form and continues all the way to the toe of the shoe.

Reasons against wearing high-heels, which are almost exclusively health and practicality reasons, include:

-   -   they can cause foot pain     -   they can create foot deformities, including hammertoes and         bunions     -   they can cause an unsteady gait     -   they can shorten the wearer's stride     -   they can render the wearer unable to run     -   altered forces at the knee caused by walking in high-heels may         predispose to degenerative changes in the knee joint     -   See “Foot and Tendon Problems” below for many of the medical         reasons.     -   Women who wear high heels frequently have a higher incidence of         degenerative joint disease of the knees. This is because they         cause a decrease in the normal rotation of the foot which puts         more rotation stress on the knee

Reasons for wearing high-heels, which are almost exclusively aesthetic, include:

-   -   they change the angle of the foot with respect to the lower leg,         which accentuates the appearance of calves     -   they change the wearer's posture, requiring a more upright         carriage and altering the gait in what is considered a seductive         fashion     -   they make the wearer appear taller     -   they make the legs appear longer     -   they make the foot appear smaller     -   they make the toes appear shorter     -   they make the arches of the feet higher and better defined     -   they make the lower leg muscles more defined     -   they make the gluteus maximus more defined     -   they may improve the tone of a woman's pelvic floor.

Types of High Heels

Types of heels found on high-heeled footwear include:

-   -   cone: a round heel which is broad where it meets the sole of the         shoe and noticeably narrower at the point of contact with the         ground     -   kitten: a short, slim heel with maximum height under 2 inches         and diameter of no more than 0.4 inch at the point of contact         with the ground     -   prism: three flat sides which form a triangle at the point of         contact with the ground     -   spool: broad where it meets the sole and at the point of contact         with the ground; noticeably narrower at the midpoint between the         two     -   stiletto: a tall, slim heel with minimum height of 2 inches and         diameter of no more than 0.4 inch at the point of contact with         the ground     -   wedge: occupies the entire space under the arch and heel         portions of the foot

Men and Heels

Although high heels originated in France as male footwear around 1500, since the late 1700s, men's shoes have had primarily low heels. A notable exception is cowboy boots, which continue to sport a taller riding heel. The two-inch Cuban heel features in many styles of men's boot, but was popularised by Beetle boots, famously worn by the English rock group, The Beatles, which saw the reintroduction of heels for men which some men still wear high heels today. Winklepicker boots also usually feature a Cuban heel. There was also a brief resurgence in higher-heeled shoes for men in the 1970s (in Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta's character wears a Cuban heel in the opening sequence). The singer Prince is known to wear high heels, as well as Sir Elton John. Bands such as Motley Crue & Sigue Sigue Sputnik predominantely wore High Heels during the 1980's and are currently being worn by Bill Kaulitz, the lead singer of Tokio Hotel.

Accessories

The stiletto of certain kinds of high-heels can damage some types of floors. Such damage can be prevented by heel protectors, also called covers, guards, or taps, which fit over the “stiletto” tips to keep them from direct, marring contact with delicate surfaces, such as linoleum (rotogravure) or urethane-varnished wooden floors. Heel protectors are widely used in ballroom dancing, as such dances are often held on wooden flooring. The bottom of most heels usually has a plastic or metal heel tip that wears away with use and can be easily replaced. Dress heels (high-heeled shoes with elaborate decoration) are worn for formal occasions.

Foot and Tendon Problems

High-heeled shoes slant the foot forward and down while bending the toes up. The more that the feet are forced into this position, the more it may cause the Achilles tendon to shorten. This may cause problems when the wearer chooses lower heels or flat-soled shoes. When the foot slants forward, a much greater weight is transferred to the ball of the foot and the toes, increasing the likelihood of damage to the underlying soft tissue which supports the foot. In many shoes, style dictates function, either compressing the toes, or forcing them together, possibly resulting in blisters, corns, hammer toes, bunions (hallux valgus), Morton's neuroma and many other medical conditions, most of which are permanent, and will require surgery to alleviate the pain. High heels—because they tip the foot forward—put pressure on the lower back through making the rump push outwards and crushing the lower back vertebrae and contracting the muscles of the lower back.

If it is not possible to avoid high heels altogether, it is suggested that the wearer spend at least a third of the time on their feet in contour-supporting “flat” shoes (such as exercise sandals), or well-cushioned “sneaker-type” shoes, saving high heels for special occasions.

One of the most critical problems of high-heeled-shoe design involves a properly constructed toe-box. Improper construction here can cause the most damage to one's foot. Toe-boxes which are too narrow force the toes to be “crammed” too close together. Ensuring that room exists for the toes to assume a normal separation so that high-heel wear remains an option rather than a debilitating practice, is an important issue in improving the wearability of women's high-heeled fashion shoes. Wide heels do not necessarily offer more stability, and any raised heel with too much width, such as found in “blade-” or “block-heeled” shoes, induces unhealthy side-to-side torque to the ankles with every step, stressing them unnecessarily, while creating additional impact on the balls of the feet. Thus, the best design for a high-heel is one with a narrower width, where the heel is closer to the front, more solidly under the ankle, where the toe box provides room enough for the toes, and where forward movement of the foot in the shoe is kept in check by material snug across the instep, rather than by the toes being rammed forwards and jamming together in the toe box, or crushed into the front of the toe box.

Despite the medical issues surrounding high-heel wear, a few podiatrists recommend well-constructed low to moderate heels for some patients. It appears a slight elevation of the heel improves the angle of contact between the metatarsals and the horizontal plane, thereby more closely approximating the proper angle and resulting in proper weight distribution of a medium-to-high-arched foot. Other foot specialists, however, argue that any heel causes unnecessary stresses on the various bones and joints of the foot.

Potential Health Benefits

A recent study suggested that wearing high heels may improve the tone of a woman's pelvic floor.

Feminist Attitudes Towards High Heels

The high heel has been a central battleground of sexual politics ever since the emergence of the women's liberation movement of the 1970s. Many second-wave feminists rejected what they regarded as constricting standards of female beauty, created for the subordination and objectifying of women and self-perpetuated by reproductive competition and women's own aesthetics. Some feminists argue that the high heels were designed to make woman helpless and vulnerable, perpetuating the gender role of males as protectors of the slowly staggering women. High heels have also been blamed for reducing the woman into a sex object, by sacrificing practical comfort in favor of an alleged increase in sex appeal. Many contemporary feminists, however—particularly those of the third wave—do not share these views. Some second wave feminists such as Judy Grahn have tied high heels to menstruation rituals that various cultures have used.

Strobel Slip Last—Shoe construction method which stitches a sole shaped fabric board to the upper of the shoe that is slipped onto a last, closing the upper with stitches around the perimeter of the sole. The board may be varied from thin flexible materials, thicker stable to materials, or a combination of the two stitched together, to improve stability or flexibility. 

1. A shoe upper, having: an upper outer material with a lower end region of the outer material located in a lower upper end region, an upper lining material, which is arranged on the inner side of the upper outer material, incorporates a functional layer and has a lower end region of the lining material, the end region of the lining material having a lining edge that is not covered by the upper outer material, and a connecting band, which extends around the periphery of the upper end region and is joined on a first longitudinal side to the end region of the outer material but not to the end region of the lining material, and is joined on a second longitudinal side to the end region of the lining material but not to the end region of the outer material, band wherein at points of curvature of the lower periphery of the upper end region the connecting band extends in an arc corresponding to the local radius of curvature, with the two longitudinal sides of the connecting band having different degrees of curvature band, in such a way that, for an arc sector lying in the respective curvature, with a predetermined unitary sector angle, the arc lengths of the two longitudinal connecting band sides belonging to this arc sector differ from each other the more, the greater the curvature of the respective arc sector is, the arc length of the first longitudinal side of the connecting band being longer than the arc length of the second longitudinal side of the connecting band at points with convex curvature of the lower periphery of the upper end region, corresponding to the differing curvatures and arc lengths of the outer material end and the lining material end region.
 2. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 1, in which the arc length of the second longitudinal side of the connecting band is longer than the arc length of the first longitudinal side of the connecting band at points of the upper end region periphery with a concave curvature.
 3. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 1, in which the lining edge that is not covered by upper outer material is formed by an overhang of the end region of the lining material with respect to the end region of the outer material.
 4. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 1, with a substantially rigid connecting band, in which the differences in arc length of the two longitudinal sides of the connecting band, which are dependent on the respective arc curvature, are incorporated correspondingly into the band at the production stage.
 5. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 4, with a punched connecting band.
 6. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 4, with an injection-molded connecting band.
 7. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 1, with an elastic connecting band, which is joined on its first longitudinal side to the outer material end region while being subjected to longitudinal tensile pre-stress.
 8. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 1, with a deformable connecting band, which is joined on its first longitudinal side to the outer material end region while being subjected to longitudinal tensile pre-stress leading to plastic deformation.
 9. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 1, in which the connecting band is joined on its second longitudinal side to the lining material end region while being subjected to longitudinal tensile pre-stress.
 10. The shoe upper as claimed in claim 1, in which the first longitudinal side of the connecting band is sewn to the end region of the outer material. 